What awaits England in Brisbane? Lowdown on Gabba pitch, new ground, state icon and Ashes history ahead of crucial second Test against Australia

In the second of a series looking at the five host cities of the Ashes series during the Australian summer, we look at the individual characteristics of the city and arena where the action will be taking place, as well as picking out the cricketing icon from the state and the best Ashes moment played there. The 2025/26 Ashes are exclusively live in the UK on TNT Sports and discovery+.

The Gabba

The 2032 Olympic Games host has come a long way from its reputation as ‘Pig City’ in Australia’s ‘Deep North’ - led by Queensland premier Joh Bjelke Pietersen during an infamous 19-year reign up to 1987.

Aided by years of migration to the warmer climate from the southern states around the turn of the millennium and unabated construction before and since, Queensland’s economy has grown to the extent that it is likely to surpass Victoria as the country’s second biggest in the coming years.

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With The Maroons dominating the State of Origin series against New South Wales, Brisbane Broncos winning the NRL crown in 2025 and Brisbane Lions holding back-to-back AFL flags, locals have a claim to be the current sporting capital of Australia.

Though having the most quintessentially Aussie name of any ground, the Gabba could be argued to be the most nondescript of Ashes stadiums - with it set to be replaced by the main Olympics venue after 2032.

A soulless bowl it may seem to some, but the ‘Gabbatoir’ did boast an unbeaten Test record for 32 years, and only when it was breached by India in 2021 did it lose its traditional role as the opening Test venue of the Australian summer.

The pitch

Detail photograph of a pink ball at the Gabba during a Cricket Australia via Getty Images media opportunity on April 20, 2016 in Brisbane, Australia.

Image credit: Getty Images

Traditionally, it was the epitome of a bat-first pitch, which is why Nasser Hussain’s call to send Australia in to bat in 2002 will never be forgotten.

Often a road for the first day or so, cracks would open in the back half of the Test which, along with the second-highest bounce in the country after Perth, is why it was Shane Warne's favourite ground in Australia, where he took 68 wickets in 11 Tests at an average of 20.31.

Like most Australian wickets, it has turned green in recent years, but after warnings from the ICC, it will probably be a harder, flatter track this time around with the fun and games to come in the air (rather than from the ground) with the pink ball.

The extra swing the pink ball gets under lights is only exacerbated by the humidity in Brisbane, meaning (whisper it) we are unlikely to see a fourth day, but let’s hope for a third!

This means it is unlikely to be a venue, if there is one, where Bazball will be reined in, as England batters are likely to look to pile on runs in friendlier conditions before tea, after which an unplayable delivery might have their name on it.

State icon - Matthew Hayden

Matthew Hayden of Australia in action during day two of the fourth Ashes Test Match between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on December 27, 2006 in Melbourne, Australia.

Image credit: Getty Images

While Australia captains Allan Border and Greg Chappell migrated north in their mid-20s to Queensland and made it their home, for a state icon, it is hard to look past a dominant opening batter.

Brought up in Kingaroy, a rural hinterland town 150 miles from Brisbane, Hayden epitomised the state's spirit. Despite plundering runs in the Sheffield Shield, he had to wait the best part of a decade for a run in the Test side, before Steve Waugh made him a mainstay.

He added a physical presence to an already imposing side, later joined by his great friend and fellow Queenslander, the late Andrew Symonds. The two shared a memorable 279-run partnership at the MCG Ashes Test in 2006, seven years after the pair swum a kilometre to safety after their boat capsized.

Statistically, Australia’s greatest opening batsman - averaging 52.5 - it is difficult to think of a more unwelcome site for opposition bowlers, as Hayden used his size to put them off length and launch his front leg down the pitch to clatter quicks over their head or slog-sweep spinners.

Almost as unpleasant, he has threatened to do a nude walk around the MCG if Joe Root fails to get a century on this tour.

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Ashes moment - Johnson ends great England era

Because of its status as historically the first Test of the summer, the Gabba has often provided the defining moments in one-sided contests - even in the series England won in 1986/87 and 2010/11, Ian Botham and Alastair Cook’s big centuries laid down statements.

There is also Michael Slater’s 176 in 1995, Hayden’s pair of hundreds after the ‘Hussain toss’ and who could forget Steve Harmison’s ball to first slip and Ricky Ponting’s subsequent 191, which foreshadowed the desperate first-ever 5-0 whitewash that followed?

However, the honour must go to Mitchell Johnson and his hostile bowling in the 2013/14 series, which effectively broke England’s most successful side in sixty years.

Nine wickets in the match (4/61 and 5/42) do not tell the whole tale, as his intimidating bowling left most English batters on edge, and set the stage for a series where he would take 37 wickets at 13.97 in a whitewash.

From being a figure of derision in the two prior Ashes series and not selected for the previous contest, he finally lived up to the billing Dennis Lillee gave him as a teenager of being a once in a generation bowler.

Australia record at Gabba

• Wins: 42
• Lost 10
• Draws: 14

Ashes record at Gabba:

• Australia: 13
• England: 4
• Draws: 5

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